Thanks to some gifts of birdhouses from Local friends, we're sporting a serious bird village at BetterFarm after the weekend.

Each spring, we do an annual clean-up
and repair session of birdhouses throughout the property. We have
almost a dozen birdhouses we keep up and manage for our feathered
tenants—including a gorgeous bluebird house given to us last year by the New York State Bluebird Society. Last week, our friend Carl stopped by with two gorgeous,
large houses made from slab wood by a craftsman in Goveurneur, N.Y.,
and our friend Shirley Kimberley out in Plessis gave us four bluebird
houses her husband Greg had made. So yesterday we took advantage of
all the sunshine to hang the houses throughout the backyard. Here are the bluebird houses all in a row:

The houses Carl brought us are too large for a simple mounting, so some stabilizers were in order:

For the other house from Carl, we mounted it on a post that used to hold a bird feeder that has since fallen apart:

Birdwatching off the back deck is going to be pretty extreme this summer: four bluebird houses to right along a row of trees, two giant houses in plain sight, a small bluebird house on a small mount in the middle of the yard, plus a purple martin bird complex on the tall post way in the back.

Regular birdhouses should be placed in safe locations away from predators where birds will feel secure. Bluebirds need a few extra amenities, outlined here courtesy of the New York State Bluebird Society:

Bluebirds nest in open fields or orchards. They don't generally nest in cities or suburbs.

Place the box in an open an area as possible, do not mount on trees
or buildings. Keep away from the edge of woods as house wrens will fill
them up with sticks.

mount the box 4 to 6 feet up a pole, tree, or board

put a guard on the pole to keep out raccoons, snakes and other potential predators.

Try to face the box opening towards a tree or bush to give thefledglings something to fledge to

Do not face the box opening INTO the prevailing wind direction

Place boxes 100 yards from each other to minimize bluebird territory
overlap. This distance can be reduced if there are
trees/shrubs/landscape that break up the line of sight between the
boxes.

Consider placing boxes in pairs, either back to back or within 4-6
feet of each other to encourage tree swallows and bluebirds to both
nest. They will tolerate each other but not pairs of their same species.

If you don't get bluebirds in some boxes (or too many house wrens)
after a couple seasons, consider moving them to another location.

Nicole Caldwell is a self-taught environmentalist, green-living savant and
sustainability educator with more than a decade of professional writing
experience. She is also the co-founder of Better Farm and president of
betterArts. Nicole’s work has been featured in Mother Earth News, Reader’s
Digest, Time Out New York, and many other publications. Her first book,
Better: The Everyday Art of Sustainable Living, is due out this July
through New Society Publishers.

Better Farm

Setting up for betterArts’ Children’s Room at this year’s North Country Goes Green Irish Fest in Watertown March 16-18. Thanks to the volunteers who came out to support our sister organization, which functions to expand access to the arts for all. www.betterarts.org

Snack break on a snowy afternoon.

Our compost initiative is expanding! Many thanks to @clayton_food_co_op for getting on board by donating food scraps to Better Farm to be fed to our sanctuary animals and turned into soil. Food waste accounts for up to 40 percent of “garbage” — so separating scraps out of what we throw away means a massive reduction in landfill waste. Compost contributes to soil regeneration, and fresh food scraps replace or supplement animal feed, reducing carbon emissions associated with food processing and transportation. Composting is a radical act we can all be doing several times every single day.

When archaeologists visit Better Farm.

February 28. Canadian border of New York. Garlic already sprouting. #thesethingsarenotnormal

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A little pre-spring dirt worship with the girls.

Get on the bus! Registration for our 2018 sustainability program is now open, with lots of dates to choose from! bit.ly/2oAFFnh

#farmlife

Very excited to announce our new partnership with DiPrinzio’s Kitchen in Clayton! The fine-dining Italian restaurant and catering company is saving all its table scraps to be used as Better Farm’s gardens and fed to the pigs and chickens. Big ups to @mollicathebaker for facilitating this fabulous new project!

Neigh-bors Riddler, Blaze and Red enjoying the breakfast buffet.

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#mondaymood

Sunday Funday with Buffalo the alpaca.

Nice haul today from a standing dead oak tree. #woodstoveseason

Somebody is SO EXCITED about all this fresh, organic hay! Thanks to everyone near and far who generously made donations to keep the hay supply flush alllllll winter long. Better Farm and all its beautiful beasts love you! 🐓🐖🦒🐴🦆🐥